Overwatch One Year Anniversary Event Confirmed

Fans have been speculating about what Blizzard is planning for the one-year anniversary of their hit game, Overwatch since the Uprising event ended, and it looks like we have confirmation that it will be yet another specialized event. In response to a tweet asking about the date and time of the presumed in-game event last week, the official Overwatch twitter account said that there are, “no timing details yet.”

While this statement doesn’t explicitly confirm an anniversary event for the game, it heavily implies that idea. Many fans and news outlets took this as an affirmation of the next event, which seems like a logical presumption. After all, in the case of the nonexistent Valentine’s Day event from this year, the account flatly denied that anything was planned. It would be fair to expect the same if Blizzard didn’t plan on marking the occasion.

The next question in regards to the anniversary event is when it will take place. An image from the Xbox store was leaked (as is the case with many of these events) stating that the loot boxes associated with this event will be available until June fifth. The traditional length for these events has always been three weeks in the past, meaning if this information is correct, it will position the event to have started Tuesday, May 17. Of course, the seventeenth has come and passed with no update to the game.

Apart from this piece of information obscuring the public’s prediction of when the update will be launched, it would make sense to start the event as close to the one-year anniversary as possible. Overwatch was released on May 24, 2016, meaning its one-year milestone will be reached next Wednesday. Since Tuesdays are traditionally the updating day for Overwatch, the most logical date for the event to start is May 23, 2017.

Season 4

The fourth season of competitive play in Overwatch is still chugging along, but game director Jeff Kaplan has already confirmed that it will be ending this month on the Battle.net forums. Kaplan also confirmed that there would be a season-ending timer added to the game, allowing players to have a better idea of when the season ends in their local time.

It appears that the aforementioned timer now has a midnight setting, and that is midnight GMT on Sunday, May 28. That’s 8 PM EST, 5 PM PT and 1 AM on the 29th BST, Overwatch’s principal designer Scott Mercer took to the forums on Tuesday to let the player base know when the current season will be ending. He also added that Blizzard will be moving to shorter off-seasons in the future, starting with the current break between seasons four and five. Kaplan stated that the next season could start as early as June first, though there has been no confirmation of the exact date at this time.

Season four brought some changes to the ranking decay system, allowing players a little more freedom in terms of when they want to play. If you’re looking to get your rank up before the season ends, make sure you get your games in before the timer reaches zero.